Abandoned, Not Forgotten

This is the story that I am telling on Saturday at the Neighbor Power! workshop sponsored by LISC. My hope is to inspire and motivate others to become involved in addressing issues that negatively impact their lives and those of their neighbors and loved ones, such as abandoned, boarded-up houses that can become magnets for crime.

In October 2003, I finally bought myself my dream house; a 103-year old fixer-upper Four-Square, with some of the most beautiful architectural elements you will ever see. It needed just the amount of TLC I felt I could manage to provide as a single female. I knew at the time the neighborhood was sort of “on the edge”, but the house was located on a solid block of good folks, and I felt I could help turn things around and help build community, since I’d watched it being done by others in Cottage Home Neighborhood, a nearby neighborhood where I’d rented a great little duplex for 8 years. I finally had my own place. :)

Although my neighborhood is made up of over 300 homes, my new neighbors invited me to sparsely-attended neighborhood meetings (3-5 people) and shortly thereafter, nominated me for the neighborhood president. The leaders were pretty burnt out and frustrated, and understandably so. They wanted new energy and perspectives, and things to improve. I was new, eager to learn about the neighborhood and why the problems in the community existed, as well as to protect my investment, so I accepted.

As I walked my dog Lady around the neighborhood daily, I witnessed some pretty scary people and places; so much neglected property and rubbish everywhere. This was so unlike Minnesota where I grew up. There were broken fences and boarded up houses and garages around which piles of discarded belongings were simply dumped on the ground. The more neighbors I met, the more I learned about the local crime in the neighborhood, and drug dealing going on, tho I never seemed to witness it myself. I found that it was filled with friendly, yet almost skiddish folks. This was understandable, considering the experiences of crime they had been experiencing all around them for months, even years.

What did I get myself into? Even my dog was like “Mom, what are we doing here?” I had reservations about whether I’d made the right decision or not, but each time they would inevitably disappear. This was my new home now, and for some odd reason, I had faith that I could affect things and help make it into a wonderful, safe enjoyable place to live. Arsenal Heights Neighborhood. Each time I looked around, I saw what it *could be*.

I held regular monthly, structured neighborhood meetings with agendas, and continued to get to know more and more of my neighbors as I walked Lady through the neighborhood. Each time I met someone new on my daily walks that seemed sober, I said hello, introduced myself, shared with them where I lived, and exchanged contact information/emails when I could. I personally invited them to the monthly neighborhood meetings to express/share their concerns and experiences. I told them city officials and police were there to listen to our concerns, and that if didn’t voice them, nothing would ever change.

Gradually over the months, the meeting attendees grew, one by one; more folks in the neighborhood met each other and slowly, bit by bit, we became more of a community. We began feeling empowered when we heard others’ stories that were similar to our own. We also reached out to the larger NESCO community in order to seek their help, support, and guidance in addressing the problems we faced.

We met month after month after month to discuss the status of problems, as well as other news and neighborhood activities, but the same problems and complaints came up over and over with our Health and Hospital inspector and police, and city neighborhood liaison.

At one point, I decided that the changes were simply NOT being made at an acceptable rate. We never seemed to get a clear answer for why the owner of each particular property was not addressing it’s code violation. Although we, as active neighborhood members, empathized with each other and re-enforced our experiences, we still felt pretty helpless to address the problems we faced, and did not feel our Health & Hospital (H&H) inspector was using his authority to make negligent property owners accountable. It was the same story every month, it seemed.

And then one day, the Dirty Dozen List was born. I thought “metrics”. I thought it would be helpful to “track progress” on each house that was under code violation or that was highlighted as a problem by neighbors, since generally the problem houses were directly linked to “problem tenants” and/or “owners of the problem properties”. We learned as a community that it was important to call and report every code violation we could possibly see (and we shared the phone number with everyone we knew on numerous occasions, so everyone could call in violations), because it was really our only ammunition toward getting the attention of the negligent and apathetic property owners. By calling in all of the code violations we could find, and track progress, we attempted to pressure H&H and the property owners into actually ensuring the properties were maintained safely and appropriately.

Every meeting we went over the Dirty Dozen List. And month after month after month, it became evident that not a lot was happening, and the more data we collected, the more we had evidence that “the H&H code enforcement process was broken”. We began talking to the H&H Corporation leadership, Environmental Court judges, and City of Indianapolis officials to help us understand why properties remained problematic, and what we could do about it. The data spoke for itself. All we needed to do was share it, and ask "why?".

At one point, our City of Indianapolis Neighborhood Liaison Katy Brett recognized that we were actively pursuing the problems in our neighborhood; that we actually cared. So, she invited a fellow city official named Jeff Bennett to our neighborhood meeting. Unbenounced (is this even a word?) to us, the city was diligently working toward addressing the problems of abandoned houses in the city, and had even formed an Abandoned Houses Work Group to assist the City in identifying long term strategies to reclaim and rehabilitate abandoned properties. Jeff, in partnership with up to 20 local experts, was working on drafting statutory improvements to the Unsafe Building Law, tax sale process, and a provision creating land bank authority for local governments across the state. He came to our neighborhood meetings to learn about the frustrations and road-blocks we had been encountering first hand, with properties in our very own neighborhood. We were *living* with the problems on a daily basis that he was trying to solve. At one point, we had Jeff Bennett, our Indiana State Representative John Day, and Arsenal Heights Civic League residents sharing their experience and ideas on how we might tweak the Senate Bill 341 to ensure it had the biggest bite possible. And, congratulations to them for serving their community and going to the very root of the problem! :)

This gave people in my neighborhood a feeling of great honor and pride that we were even given the opportunity to contribute, and possibly even affect our very own Indiana state law to make a positive difference in our community and living environment. To get the abandoned houses into the hands of CDCs or developers, rather than just sitting there for years and years, empty. And, to know that the people that we elected and hired to run our government cared enough to listen.

Once they submitted the bill, we anxiously awaited for the outcomes of the legislative sessions. First, we received news that SB341 had passed through the Indiana State Senate unanimously (50-0) and was referred to the House of Representatives. We were delighted. Whoooo-Hoooo! Woot! Woot!

When news came that the bill was removed from the House agenda with no explanation what-so-ever, we were deflated. This meant a-whole-nother year of status quo. Another year of the same old #@$#$!!. IT FELT THAT ALL HOPE WAS LOST... Even the Indianapolis Star publically acknowledged the disappointment and frustration caused by the killing of the bill.

It was actually during one of my disappointing and desperate discussions with either Jeff Bennett or Justin Ohlemiller, who was the city’s communication coordinator, that the possibility of a neighborhood rally or protest might help the situation.
When I broached the subject with Arsenal Heights Civic League VP, Linda Van Scoder, she was unsure. I talked her into going for it; afterall, what could it hurt? So, we held a rally in front of one of the abandoned houses in our neighborhood. We invited the local news stations, and the entire near eastside community to the rally for their help and support, and to empower them to take advantage of this opportunity to make a stand, and hopefully make a positive difference.

I leveraged my secretary role in the Near Eastside Collaborative Taskforce to initiate a massive writing campaign; provided contact information (phone numbers and direct links) to both the Indianapolis Star editorial section, and the Indiana State representatives' websites who were responsible for removing the bill from the session agenda (Phil Hinkle and James Buck). We made it as easy as we could for folks to call and write to them directly requesting (and even demanding!) an explanation for why they removed the bill from the agenda and basically killed it in the house legislative session, especially after a unanimous vote through the senate. Their offices were flooded with letters and calls, and the Indianapolis Star was flooded with letters to the editor.

Hinkle and Buck both showed up at our neighborhood rally and attempted to defend their concerns in person. I think they may have been a little sorry they came, because I literally heard one of our long time NESCO community leaders (feisty Ruth Shaw) look one of them straight in the eye and say “You should be *ashamed* of yourself!”. They attempted to defend their concerns through an Indianapolis Star editorial article also, but their concerns just didn’t seem to add up. It was also fairly clear that partisan politics were at play. We also learned that Buck was in the real estate business and Hinkle was in the mortgage business, and the whole thing began to seem a little fishy, and I called them out on this in my Indianapolis Star editorial, specifically.

The session was going down to the wire, and we still had not heard whether or not the bill would be revived to at *least* get a vote. The entire NESCO Community held their feet to the fire (and would not let up) until we heard whether the bill was revived or not; we were all on pins and needles. We learned that the bill was revived as an amendment to another bill, and ultimately passed through the House with a vote of 75-25....and the vote was held on the last day of the legislative session. What a roller coaster ride!!

This new law: Bolstered the ability of cities and counties all across the state to better address the issue of abandoned houses and problem properties, which negatively impact the quality of life in neighborhoods throughout Indiana.
The State law changes outlined in HB1102/SB341 essentially does three things:
1) Adds teeth to a city’s ability to go after negligent property owners and prevent these bad actors from acquiring even more property;
2) Provides municipalities with more options in partnering with developers to revitalize troubled properties; and
3) Speeds up the timeframe that sites may languish in abandonment before they can be put back into positive reuse.

The law gives local governments statewide better tools to tackle the tremendous challenges posed by vacant, abandoned and dilapidated properties.

This is a story with a positive outcome, that I hope encourages you to:
• Foster good and productive relationships and partnerships within your community.
• Make contacts and develop relationships with fellow neighbors; get to know your neighbors, and engage your fellow neighbors; the issues and concerns that you are facing – they are facing them too!
• Make contacts and develop relationships with city officials, and those that can help you.
• Make contacts and develop relationships with others who have more experience than you, that can help guide you.
When you actively care and make a stand, people will notice and even join and support you in your worthy causes.

My story also speaks to the Peterson administration, and their ability and willingness to partner with city residents. It also speaks to the city residents that were willing to voice their needs and demand positive changes in their lives. The people really do have power. :)

The End.